In accepting his party's nomination, George W. Bush gave a presidential address, not a candidate's campaign kickoff. It was a safe speech with no surprises.
"I am running with a compassionate conservative philosophy," said Bush, and he then offered a lot more in the way of compassion - if that means government help for people - than conservatism. The Republicans spent a good part of their convention putting their moderate foot forward.
As if giving a State of the Union speech, the president began with a laundry list of programs: higher school standards, tax relief and simplification, job training, economic opportunity zones, health savings accounts, and health centers for every rural or poor county.
Those offered little to small-government conservatives. Later, Bush gave only a brief nod to social conservatives by promising to "make a place for the unborn" and to protect "marriage against activist judges." As references to abortion and gay marriage, they were not exactly a call to the barricades of a cultural war.
On the economy, Bush naturally did not mention that there are a million fewer jobs today than when he took office. He just credited his tax cuts with creating more of them lately. Source.
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